New video statement from the Amir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokku Umarov: “Clarification regarding the fitnah among the Mujāhidīn”

UPDATE: Here is an English transcript of the below video statement from Dokku Umarov:

I seek refuge in Allah from the cursed Satan!

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful!

Verily, all praise is due to Allah, we praise him, we seek him and we ask for his forgiveness and guidance, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil consequences of our actions, whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide and whomsoever Allah leaves to stray none can guide him.

I testify there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah.

And then:

May the peace, the mercy, and the blessings of Allah be upon you!

Today, by the will of Allah, we are on the training base of the unit of Abdullah, the Emir of those Mujahideen who are doing a training here. The head of the training center is Sheikh Abu Supyan.

By the grace and the will of Allah, the Almighty brought us together today, because all of us are the Mujahideen who entered the path of Jihad to establish the laws of Allah on this earth.

Insha’Allah, we are confident and convinced that this is the path to Paradise. Therefore, Insha’Allah, all the brothers who are waging the Jihad all over the world, and we along with them, are the same brethren for the sake of Allah, and we are following today the same path, and this path leads to Paradise, Insha’Allah.

There are our brothers in the Paradise who have followed this path before us, and, Insha’Allah, we will be in the company of the Prophet (pbuh), if we are sincere on this path, and if we sincerely establish the laws of Allah on this earth.

Today, I want to describe in a few words the situation in the world because even if we are separated by thousands of miles from those Mujahideen who wage the Jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and many other places, they are our brothers and we are now fight (with them) for the laws of Allah on this earth.

Iblis, or the Devil, with its army is against us and against those Mujahideen today.

Let us start with Afghanistan. Praise be to Allah, Afghanistan is a suffering country, but there is a great Barakat, or Blessings, from those brothers who are waging today the Jihad out there. Today, our brothers in Afghanistan control 70% of the Afghan territory, and we hear daily on the radio, the TV, on the Internet news from our brothers that the Jihad in Afghanistan goes on well and successfully.
Our brothers in Afghanistan are countered by Christian-Zionist states, headed by America, which advocates exactly this religion.

A major Jihad is also going on in Pakistan in mountainous regions that border our brothers in Afghanistan, and our brothers there confront the same Americans.

The Jihad is also going on in Kashmir, where our brothers are confronted by Indian pagans.

Insha’Allah, we also know that the Jihad is being waged on the African continent, in Somalia, Mali, Algeria and in many other places, and our brothers are successfully fighting on this path.

Armies of Iblis wage a war against us. Americans, who preach Christian Zionism today, and European atheists, who do not profess any religion, are united under this flag.

We know why this war has been launched against Muslims. All that is done, so that there would not be a piece of land of Dar-us-Salam, or the territories of peace, on this earth, where Muslims could live under the laws of Allah, because the law of Allah is hated by Iblis. And all those hordes who head the armies of Iblis are their henchmen.

Today we know that the heart of Muslims, the heart of the Jihad, should be in Palestine, and I would be very happy to say that there is a Jihad going on in Palestine. But we can speak about the Jihad in Palestine with much reservation because slogans of 1967 are now being used in Palestine: independent Palestine, Jerusalem as its capital, etc.

Today, Palestine allows manipulations upon itself, giving the enemies of Islam a possibility to present themselves as “defenders of Muslims”.

The Jihad today is going on in the Caucasus, so let us turn to our place of the Jihad. Praise be to Allah by Whose will we wage the Jihad in the Caucasus against Russia, the most despised infidel among infidels.

Russia is the most despised country among infidels. The ideology of this country is a Communist/Atheist legacy.

When we proclaimed the Emirate in 2007, they (Russia) did not pay attention to our proclamation and our statements that we reject the Taghut and that we join our brothers who wage the Jihad today all over the world.

But when they made certain of the strength of our brotherhood, when they became convinced that we stand on the true path, Iblis in their (Russia’s) person started to test our ranks.

We felt the first test in the years 2009 to 2010, when we lost a number of our leading emirs, or commanders: Magas, Seyfullah of Kabarda, Musa Mukozhev, Seyfullah of Dagestan, Daud of Dagestan and a number of emirs of Nokhchicho (aka Ichkeria) Province.

First of all, I would like to mention Shatral, Sawab, Selim, Aslan, Khamzat Gorodskoy and many, many others. If we try to count them today we could not do that…

Well, we withstood that test, and when Iblis realized that, he sent a fitna, or a discord, on us, and with the help of infidels’ special services and hypocrites sitting out abroad, this fitna entered our ranks and split them.

I will try to outline in a few words three or four reasons for this fitna as I see it.

The first reason is certainly that when our Prophet (pbuh) made a dua and asked Allah to answer his three requests, two of which received positive answers, but the third request, when the Prophet (pbuh) asked that there would not split among his Ummah, was not answered.

We know that in any case that there were fitnas among the Muslims before us and they will remain after us, and we will not avoid that.

The second reason is my faults.

Yes, I say once again that I am not a saint and, probably, I have more faults in me than in any of the Mujahideen, but my faults are not a reason for a withdrawal of the Bayat by splitting the Mujahideen.

My faults are solved by the Sharia Court, the law of Allah, under which we are ordered to live.

And if I do not go to the court and do not obey the laws of Allah, this problem can be solved by a sword, as it was at the time of the righteous Caliph Omar ibn Khattab. And today the sword is replaced by a machine gun, which is the same thing.

If the today’s split were caused by my faults, our men who had caused this fitna, who caused this split, these brothers had to approach me at the first sign of this fitna and ask me to correct my mistakes, my faults, and to become my advisors.

But I saw a different approach in our brothers. When our brothers came to me, they summoned me to the Majlis, or the council, which was organized in the proportion three to one, although one of them never had the right to attend that Majlis because in that case, Khamzat had to be present, who has the same position among the Mujahideen as a deputy and an emir.

Supyan had to be present. Sheikh Supyan is my advisor and an old veteran of the Mujahideen, who attended all the Majlises. But they invited neither Khamzat nor Supyan.

And when we went to this Majlis, the first question they raised was that a final decision should be taken by the Majlis and not by the Emir. I disagreed saying that it is not so, and that it had never been this way.

Our brother Muhannad swore by Allah that it was so during Maskhadov (martyr, Insha’Allah) and so it was during Abdul-Khalim (martyr, Insha’Allah). When we sent for the testimony of Abu Supyan, our dispute was decided in my favor that it was not so neither during Maskhadov nor during Abdul-Khalim, that the decision rests with the Emir, because he is responsible before Allah for all the actions of every Mujahid.

After that, our brothers said (and all who were present are witnesses for it) that several emirates are to be created instead of a single Emirate, something like the United Arab Emirates.

These separate emirates mean that they are entitled to their own policies, to the right to have their own Emir, the right to have their own cabinet of ministers, the right to withdraw from the Emirate at any time, and the right to conduct domestic and foreign policy at their own will.

When they got a refusal to it, they started asking me to allow them to create, that is, that they could create, a cabinet of ministers in Nokhchicho Province, to appointed a Minister of Foreign Affairs and to conduct separate talks, I do not know with whom, but they were convincing me that there would be talks, that that these talks were imminent, that after that we would help other brothers to get free, as if Iblis dozes, and as if the infidel is asleep and permits that.

When all these requests were rejected by me, when I said that this would not happen, I agreed to their proposal – a rational proposal, which could be accepted – to appoint an Emir of Nokhchicho Province. It seemed to me that if they see some benefit in it, it could be more promising for our Jihad.

The appointment of a Deputy Emir of the Caucasus was also a reasonable proposal, and once they have gone with my appointments, they stirred up the Mujahideen and organized this fitna, for which there is a Sharia punishment, using all sorts of undignified attacks on the Emir. And today, we hear statements from them that they are not against the Emirate but they are only against the Emir Abu Usman.

I say that this is a hypocrisy, it is a real hypocrisy. If they are against Abu Usman, then we have the Sharia, and we have an alim, praise be to Allah. Allah gave him to us, and these issues must be decided specifically in the Sharia.

We know that under the Sharia, if Emir does not commit infidelity, if Emir does not turn away from the Jihad (praise be to Allah, I have not done it and, Insha’Allah, I have no intentions to do it), no matter how brutal, how unjust the Emir (he will answer for that before Allah), nobody is allowed to withdraw his bayat to the Emir!

I hear unworthy talks now on the Internet, on the TV, on the radio, where they say: “Had we to wait until he raises a cross?”.

I answer: Yes, you had to wait for that, because it would be much easier for you to come and solve this problem with a machine gun.

But people who say it today they have been sitting out the situation somewhere in Europe until 2008. And Abu Usman was waging the Jihad and did not raise a cross and, praise be to Allah, he is not going to raise it, because I got this weapon and this banner from the great men who had gone ahead of me.

I see that as a second reason, Insha’Allah. There are Ulama, or Muslim scholars, among us today, Insha’Allah, there more ulama on the way. Therefore, the court will decide these problems.

Is Abu Usman guilty? If yes, then Abu Usman will bear his punishment. Guilty are the brothers who stirred the fitna. And, Insha’Allah, they will bear their punishment. And there is no doubt about that, and even if they avoid the punishment in this world, then they will bear it in another world before Allah.

But it would be better and easier for them to get punished here, on this earth, than there, in the future world.

This is the second reason. I say again, yes, the reason is my faults and my oversights.

The third reason is important too. Some persons of ours, who sit out today abroad, and who are turning back to the Jihad, abandoned the Jihad using lies and deceit still during Maskhadov, fled the Caucasus, were admitted into a satanic club opened by notorious Boris Berezovsky.

These persons of ours were admitted to this club in a hope that their master has some influence on the Mujahideen, whom they could manipulate against their enemies as a red rag.

Allah is my witness that our enemies are the enemies of Allah, and we are at enmity with them because they are the enemies of Allah, and not in order to indulge Berezovsky, or indulge Satan. We are at enmity with them because they are the enemies of Allah!

These persons can not calm down at all today. But we will not allow their manipulations. After the proclamation of the Emirate, nobody will manipulate us. We are true Mujahideen, and we stand on the true path, and we truly want to uphold the law of Allah and establish it precisely in the place that Allah entrusted to us in the Caucasus.

These persons, we know whom we speak about, can not calm down today. They know that when their masters, Berezovsky and others, realize that they have no influence on the Mujahideen, that they have no “joker”, they will be just kicked out from the club. Therefore, these persons are doing today everything possible to obscure the brains of the Mujahideen in order to cheat them.

I swear by Allah, I do not take offense at these Mujahideen, because these persons also deceived me. I swear by Allah, they deceived me! Until 2007, when I relied completely on Allah and rejected their services and broke ties with these people, these people were deceiving me.

Not only me, but our previous Emir Maskhadov who was killed as soon as he began to hold talks with these people.

Our next Emir, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, was also killed just as soon as the talks with these persons started, these persons were the mediators of the talks.

And I saw it personally, when I was offered to hold these talks, that me, too, is being prepared for the slaughter. And after I rejected all that, praise be to Allah, my heart is free from it.

Today, these persons found other people to cheat. We know their correspondence, we know about their ties, therefore I swear by Allah, it hurts me today that we allow that these persons use us.

Today, we are sacrificing the most precious gift from Allah, our souls, and we can not renounce these Iblises, these stooges of Iblis. So I ask brothers, who are under a delusion today, that they come to senses and renounce the delusion.

I swear by Allah, if all the people in this world unite, they will not be able to hold talks and there’ll be no use from them if there is no will of Allah for it. And all the people who united against you can not cause you any harm, if it is not predestinated by Allah.

If there are talks, they will be only held by the will of Allah. If there is a victory, it will be granted only by the will of Allah.

The fourth reason is also important.

That is an improper execution of their duties by commanders of fronts, of those two fronts that were included into Nokhchicho Province. Why were these emirs dismissed today?

If these emirs properly executed their duties on procurement of food for the Mujahideen, for the procurement of ammunition for the Mujahideen, for the procurement of weapons for the Mujahideen, for the procurement of medicines and hospitals for the Mujahideen, then, I think, their would be no statements by the Mujahideen in which they accused me of all these faults.

Because if the Emir of Mujahideen of the Caucasus is obliged today to procure bread and salt, bullets, medicines for a Mujahid, to cure him, I think, he could never do it, even under the best opportunities.

Therefore, the fact that those emirs did not act properly in fulfilling their duties, also outraged the Mujahideen, and also contributed to the fitna.

Therefore, these emirs are dismissed today from their posts, praise be to Allah, and today these fronts are disbanded, and a decree on this will follow suit, Insha’Allah.

Today, I want to appeal to all the Muslims, the Muslims living in the Caucasus, in the first place, and to those Muslims who live in Idel-Ural, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and seek contacts with us. We feel your support, we feel a tie with you. We know that you support us today, we know that you wage the Jihad on the path Allah today.

I also appeal to all fellow Muslims, who for some reason live in Europe and in other countries. I swear by Allah that we love you all today! Love us also for Allah’s sake! Do not introduce a split in our ranks, but make a dua asking Allah to close our ranks, so that we will be united.

You live somewhere aside, in other lands, and we go together and die here together every day. Today, we covering each other’s eyes after death, we weep over the bodies of our brothers, and when by your words, by your mistakes, by your wishes, a split is being introduced, I swear by Allah, you will all be questioned before Allah for your deeds.

So I ask you: make a dua that there will no splits in our ranks, so that we are united. Ask Allah that He helps us to install the laws of Allah, because every person is ordered to live under these laws, and every person who did not live under these laws will be questioned.

Insha’Allah, I finish my appeal, and I want to finish it with a verse from the Koran that says, “indeed, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a row as though they are a [single] structure joined firmly”. That is the ranks of the Mujahideen must be united in their aspirations as a monolith. I want you to call for unity, so that we all be the one.

May Allah help us on the right path, and if we are somewhere astray from the right path, then let Allah guide us on the right path.

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NOTE: The Amir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokku Umarov once again released a message denouncing the individuals who rescinded their bay’at (pledge of allegiance) to him. He argues that the individuals have lost their stomach for jihād and were now aligned with the leader of the Chechen Republic. For more on the video read Liz Fuller’s summary at RFE/RL. In addition, here are all of the recent statements released by Umarov and those who rescinded their loyalty oath (the leadership issues have been going on since the end of July): here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Amir of the Caucasus Emirate Dokku Umarov: “Clarification regarding the fitnah among the Mujāhidīn”